The Dragon of Avalon by T. A. Barron

Author:T. A. Barron [Barron, T. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Dragons, Magic, Identity
ISBN: 9780142419243
Google: QUPGbwAACAAJ
Amazon: 0142419249
Publisher: Puffin Books
Published: 2011-06-09T07:00:00+00:00

18: MAGICAL SIGHT

If you've lived as long as I have, you realize that it's wise never—absolutely never—to answer a tricky question or accept a surprise gift. Unless, of course, you simply can't resist.

Who is it?" demanded Basil.

With a flap of his batlike wings, he moved across the boulder to be closer to the great stag. As a fresh gust of wind raced across the cliff, whistling ghostly notes, he stretched his face toward Dagda and said: "Tell me."

"That I will," the stag declared with a bob of his antlered head. "First, though, I must tell you something else. Something very important."

Basil blinked his eyes, feeling a strange mixture of uncertainty and amazement. How could it be that this powerful creature, the mortal form of the god of wisdom, was speaking to him—and speaking about matters of importance? Surely there were plenty of wiser, stronger creatures in Avalon who better deserved to occupy Dagda's time.

Yet the great spirit didn't seem to harbor any such doubts. Gracefully, he bent his muscular neck, lowering his rack, until the tip of his nose was almost touching Basil's. Solemnly, he said, "You, my son, have the Sight."

Basil blinked again. "The what?"

"The Sight. That rare ability to sense magic—even when it is cloaked by spells—that wizards call the Sight." The stag's warm breath poured over Basil's small, scaly body, wrapping him like a protective blanket. "But it is more than a way of seeing. Truly, my little friend, it is a way of living."

Still uncertain, Basil cocked his cupped ears forward. "And I have it?"

"You do, indeed. I can see that this is surprising news for you. And even more surprising, I suspect, is the fact that the Sight is found only in Avalon's most powerful creatures. Wizards have it. Unicorns have it. Some, though not all, dragons have it. But no others—until now."

Nervously, Basil shifted his weight on the boulder. He tapped the tiny knot at the end of his tail against the rock, sending up a thin trail of dust. "You must be mistaken."

Dagda's deep brown eyes observed him. "No, I am not. Just as I am not mistaken about the true identity of that wretched leech."

Reminded of the ugly, bloodsucking beast whose ruby red eye had burned with such vengeance, Basil scowled. "Who?"

"Someone who rode very far upon me, hoping to elude my notice. Someone whose overwhelming desire is to conquer and control. Someone who knows how much I despise his ultimate goals: to invade Avalon, make it his own, and use it as a stepping-stone to conquer mortal Earth."

Basil's throat released a spluttering hiss—his version of a growl. "So that leech is really—"

"Rhita Gawr! Not the warrior god himself, of course, who is even now raising an army against me and Lorilanda in the Otherworld. No, this is merely his latest mortal incarnation. And much like the god, who so enjoys the taste of blood . . . he chose the form of a bloodsucking leech."

Shaking his snout in disbelief, Basil asked, "Rhita Gawr? Here in Avalon?"

The stag snorted with disdain.

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